Android NDK r3 now available, adds OpenGL ES 2.0 support

The Android NDK, or Native Development Kit, just got its third release and it brings along a few improvements worth mentioning, including support for improved 3D graphics. Maybe this can give a slight boost to the Android gaming industry, which isn’t doing very well…

A bit of clarification for those who get mixed up with the whole SDK, NDK, etc. business – usually, Android apps are written in Java, but with the NDK, developers can develop “native” applications, written in C or C++, which get a performance boost. You can read all about the Android NDK if you’re interested.

The third release of the Android NDK brings two important improvements – faster and more compact code and support for OpenGL ES 2.0. Version 2.0 of OpenGL ES is more flexible than the previous release, which will hopefully let developers squeeze the most out of the limited processing power on mobile devices.